Dadcation
January 2024 started in Queenstown, New Zealand, with an awesome New Year’s Eve celebration I’ll never forget, and on New Year’s Day, we toured glaciers by helicopter and had a picnic atop a mountain next to said helicopter, and it was awesome. A few days later, it was time to fly back home and get back to work, but I visited my parents in Guntersville, Alabama, participated in my annual Hike Inn hike, and went to Nashville to see friends (and my coach) whom I wrestled with in…
I took my 30th trip to New Orleans in May for a few days of legal conference. My son got a “cadet of the year” award via his Civil Air Patrol squadron that the local VFW presented him, and I liked the guys who presented it so much that I joined their chapter. After a week in New Orleans, my bride and I flew up to Nashville for a reunion with my old squadron, the 118th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, which was closed 10 years ago. We stayed with…
In June, I spent my 47th birthday weekend in Chicago, where we kayaked the river, had dinner at Alinea, saw a “close up” magic show, visited another Hemingway home (his childhood one this time!), enjoyed late night speakeasies, and got Covid again (the Mrs and I did, anyway). Before I figured out I may be ill, we biked throughout the city, toured Soldier Field, and saw the Cubs at Wrigley and old friends like Jesse (whom I worked with at IBM in 1998) and his family, plus my…
February started with a ski trip to Tahoe with friends I met in 1998 via the Tennessee Air National Guard. I skied 40 miles the first day and another 37 on sore legs the second day. A couple of us won a few hundred dollars at blackjack just across the Nevada line. At one point, my ski got caught under a teen’s snowboard on a chairlift, and I fell off. My pride has healed; my left wrist has not. I began working in a new office fewer than…
For 2021’s final month, we started by taking the trip to Disneyland planned for May 2020; we learned to ride (and subsequently bought) a motorcycle; we returned to Cheaha State Park with my friends from childhood and their families; we attended a few holiday parties (better than attending zero holiday parties, a la 2020); we visited my folks at Lake Guntersville, and we experienced New Year’s Eve on Bourbon Street. Here are its 31 seconds: All done, 2021. You were not as we hoped.
It’s been a decade since I’ve gone to New Orleans for anything that wasn’t a) Mardi Gras, b) an Alabama football game, or c) a Dad 2.0 conference. All 3 of these are normally cold events in January or February, so a trip in late March for some warmer weather and significantly less crowding with my bride? Was awesome. The impetus for my 24th trip to New Orleans was a legal conference of 2 half-day sessions on Saturday and Sunday. We flew down Friday evening, had dinner with…
My 10th Mardi Gras trip began on Wednesday, just 3 days after I flew home from my 22nd trip to New Orleans while there for the Dad 2.0 Summit. While staying for the days in between would have been fun, my law practice and my health demanded that I spend 2.5 days at home and in the office. I landed in time to register for my trial lawyers’ conference and attend a happy hour plus dinner at Pigeon & Prince, which provided great food and great conversations with…